Paolo Paolini has a degree in Physics from the University of Milan, a Masters and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He is presently full professor at Politecnico di Milano. He is also Lecturer at the School of Communication Sciences at the University of Italian Switzerland (USI)-Lugano. He is the scientific coordinator of HOC - Hypermedia Open Center - a team of Politecnico di Milano devoted to research and development projects concerning methods and tools for multimedia and web applications. He has more than 70 published papers on the following subjects: Relational Data Bases, Data Modeling, Abstract Data Types and Data Bases, Views for Data Bases, Automatic Generation of Documents, Hypermedia and WWW modeling and design, Multimedia Implementation, Hypermedia Evaluation, Design Patterns, Design and Generation of Web Applications, Collaborative Access to WWW, use of new technologies for cultural applications, use of advanced technologies for education and training. He has been co-instructor of nearly 20 tutorials, in several international events, in the above fields. At the University of Italian Switzerland (Communication Science) he is developing research activity in communication based upon advanced technology. At the University of Lecce he has developed the Telemedia Lab, active in advanced multimedia technologies and application. The Telemedia Lab currently employs nearly 15 people, and Paolini has kept strong scientific ties with it. He has been Program Committee member of several conferences, and chairman of important scientific events, including the ACM conference on Hypertext (1992-Milan). He is currently Associate Editor of TOIS (Transactions on Information Systems), an ACM journal. He has been involved in 10 different European funded projects, and for several of them he has been scientific coordinator. He has been professional active in the areas of Software Engineering, Information Systems analysis and design, Office Automation, Multimedia design and development, WWW design and development, tools for WWW and electronic commerce. He has also managed small companies in the IT area (up to 50 people), and coordinated several multidisciplinary working teams.